I am fire, I am.. DEATH! (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

I am fire, I am.. DEATH!

Commander / EDH* Casual Competitive Mono-Red Tokens

Cipher_8

Creature (1)

1x Nesting Dragon *f-etch*

Sideboard

Creature (18)

Planeswalker (2)

2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Enchantment (10)

Artifact (6)

Land (20)

Sorcery (4)

Maybeboard

Creature (31)

Enchantment (20)

Instant (7)

Planeswalker (2)

2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Land (21)

Artifact (9)

Sorcery (7)

The original standard deck is in the Sideboard for now. Eventually it'll get moved to Maybeboard for reference.

Changing cards, changing pictures/formatting, rewriting description.

I'm going to be redoing this deck from the ground up to be a commander deck since this rotated out of standard a long time ago...

What Commander?

or one of these

Dragon themed for sure. Red for sure. I don't actually run that much blue in this so probably not Izzet I'd much rather stick to dragon (Smaug) themed.

Ancient Hellkite | Art by Jason Chan

( This is not finished, the description section is a mess, but i wanted to share as I work on it. )

In trying to anticipate what's to come I wanted to make a Dragon themed deck that will scorch the fields before their inevitable return to prominence and power as a creature type in Standard in the upcoming sets Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir

With the plane of Tarkir being the setting for the newest block I am willing to bet that we'll see more Dragon creature cards come out at some point in the next two sets within that Block.

Dragons onced thrived on Tarkir but now none inhabit it. They spawned from mighty elemental storms, filled the sky with their destructive breath, and terrorized the five ancient warrior clans. For many years, the clans fought a war against the dragons for their own survival, hoping for some way to gain an advantage in the struggle. At a crucial turning point the dragon tempests stopped coming, and no new dragons were spawned. Since the dragons stopped spawning their numbers thinned, and the tide of the war changed. Ultimately, the warriors of the clans were able to hunt down the last of the sky-beasts and destroy them, killing them ALL off. Dragons were rendered extinct on the plane, never to return. In the centuries that followed, the five warrior clans claimed dominion over Tarkir, growing and evolving into today's powerful clans. And even though the clans drove the dragons to extinction, each clan still emulates an aspect of the dragons' nature to this day

This happened more than a thousand years earlier than present day Tarkir, which is where the story now returns to. So yes, Dragons were in a big way part of Tarkir. But this was in the past - what does that have to do with the present setting?

The thing is Fate Reforged hints at a Time Travel scenario. Going back in the past.

Set 2 of the Khans of Tarkir Block is named Fate Reforged. It's description says, "Travel back in time to a war-torn Tarkir where five clans clash with the mighty dragons of the past. The Planeswalker Sarkhan Vol has arrived just in time to save Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. The choices made now will decide the fate of Tarkir." Sounds to me like we'll see at least a few dragon creatures in this set. Almost assuredly we'll see Ugin, the Spirit Dragon as a creature or possibly more planeswalkers. And maybe a new Nicol Bolas too. Could he make an appearance?

We already know Tarkir used to be home to tons of Dragons so if we're traveling back in time to those days then yes I expect to see a bunch of new Dragon cards when this set releases on January 23rd, 2015. ( OFFICIAL PREVIEWS BEGIN DECEMBER 29

We might see some new dragons in Fate Reforged but the last and third set, Dragons of Tarkir sounds like it'll have a heavy dragon influenced theme. We won't know for sure until we get closer to the release date of March 27, 2015 but the Set 3 of 3 in the Khans of Tarkir Block looks to be all about the Dragons. Plus we got this teaser Art by Jason Chan

So Yes, I do expect to see plenty of Dragon-themed decks in the future of Standard magic but why not jump the gun a little and get started now, adding cards as we go?

Brood Keeper | Art by Scott Murphy

Brood Keeper is like Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones. Her hatched dragons are the first seen in the world for hundreds of years, earning her the sobriquet Mother of Dragons. There hasn't been dragons in Tarkir for awhile either, and not many decks in Standard magic are based around Dragons until now. And this deck aims to teach opponents the same thing Game of Thrones teaches viewers... Never mess with the Mother of Dragons!

Dragon Egg | Art by Jack Wang

Instead of playing a bunch of mana costly dragon creatures, our plan is to generate multiple tokens off of our cards, mainly Brood Keeper, and then pump them with anthem effects. When you got them all buffed up and ready to roll... or rather fly then release the dragons in all their fiery breathing glory and in one big draconic bombing run finish them off.

(This deck is more effective in attrition scenarios that involve outlasting the opponent on resources instead of getting them quickly through tempo.)

Though we can generate the tempo through mana acceleration via Generator Servant which lets us get any 5 CMC spell out by T3. It's no Seething Song but it's good mana ramp. And you should take advantage of it by casting any of the powerful dragons and don't forget they come with hasty flying evasion ready to attack before the opponent knows what to expect. Saving a couple of these guys up and sac'ing them all at once gives you the ability to play anything in the deck even if you don't have enough mana. Don't forget that Sarkhan the planeswalker is castable too. Yes, it's not a creature but by using his +1 right away he can become one. A 4/4 dragon with flying AND haste. Use the generated mana on anything. It's there to be ramped.

Anthem effects

Crucible of Fire is your best Anthem effect for a Dragon Tribal deck. Some might disagree and say Crucible of Fire really just isn't very good, that dragons are big enough on their own right which makes Crucible of Fire unnecessary. Unless we get a lot of cheap aggressive dragons (which we do). Running a deck around Dragons it doesn't seem like a pointless card to me. I can see how it could be considered redundant or superfluous especially before we get the upcoming dragon cards I'm expecting. I'm sure the deck could win without it but it's not pointless or without use with it in there either. A waste of excess mana maybe but if you think it's not required just sideboard it out.

Dragon Throne of Tarkir is like a pseudo-Xenagos, God of Revels except it massive covering all your creatures you control and not just one target creature. It's just BETTER! Also it doesn't count a target creatures power but the one creature equipped so you can build just one creature up and end up buffing all your creatures for just 2 mana. Which is cost efficient if you ask me. It basically becomes a one-shot Anthem effect that's repeatable each turn. You don't need to do it on the creature with the most power either. Putting it on Brood Keeper is usually enough to give a +X/+X of +4/+4 with other enchants boosting her power and don't forget other anthem effects that buff red creatures also buff her power too and work in combination with this. So just enchant and aura up the Brood Keeper - raising it's power fairly high - then tap it via this equipment to buff all your Dragon Tokens at once. Swing in for massive damage. You won't be attacking with the Brood Keeper much anyways so might as well get some use out of it besides it's hatching dragons ability. (NOTE: There might be a place to run Hoarding Dragon and Shrapnel Blast too with Dragon Throne of Tarkir, Obelisk of Urd, and Hall of Triumph. Tutor them out but you would need to kill off the Dragon to get them to hand. Shrapnel Blast could give you the direct damage you need to finish them off.)

Hall of Triumph Choose Red and all your Dragon tokens get become 3/3's.

Obelisk of Urd A +2/+2 anthem effect is better than all the normal +1/+1 ones. It effects all of one type, so choose Dragon and don't look back. You can even tap the tokens to cheapen it's cost and cast it with convoke for a lot cheaper than 6 mana.

Paragon of Fierce Defiance I like this guy because all the red tokens get +1/+1 and you can give things Haste. I wish it was more like Hammer of Purphoros or Archetype of Aggression and gives all creatures the effect because that's ultimately what your looking for in a Tribal or Token themed deck.

If you go White, making this a Jeskai Red/White/Blue deck you could include more Anthem effects like Spear of Heliod , Dictate of Heliod , and Jeskai Charm - which functions as a one-shot anthem effect and potentially a large dose of lifegain.)

How it works

Brood Keeper Whenever an Aura becomes attached to it, put a 2/2 red Dragon creature token with flying onto the battlefield.

Then you get a Riptide Chimera into play (or Floodtide Serpent or the one-shot spell Kiora's Dismissal) so you return an enchantment-"aura" to your hand, only to recast it again on Brood Keeper and put another token out.

Cheap Auras

Hammerhand target creature cannot block as an ETB effect is great when you bounce it back to hand and replay it every turn it's like a free Blinding Flare to clear a path for your Dragons.

Dragon Mantle the draw a card when it ETB's is really nice when you bounce it back to hand and replay it every turn it's like having two draws.

Fate Foretold Another draw ETB aura.

Stratus Walk Another draw ETB aura. Gives the Brood Keeper flying which is perfect if you want to swing with it and not kill it, give it some cheap evasion. Also flying fits in with the whole flavor of Dragons theme we got going on.

Thunderous Might You'll have to consider if this is worth it in a deck that we're expanding outside of Mono-Red but you'll likely still have a good amount of Red Devotion for it's +X effect and remember you're looking for cheap enchantments to bounce and replay to trigger tokens into play. That's all you should care about in looking at cards - is cheap CMC.

Dragon Grip Flashable. Can trick them into blocking your 2/3 Brood Keeper. When they do just buff it +2/+0 to a 4/3 and ping off their creature they thought would survive. If your going to be trading deadly blows and fear losing your Dragon token engine, don't.... it also will have First Strike so you'll kill whatever it is first.

Oracle's Insight is a tad bit costly but to Scry then Draw it's kinda a good effect to have. Especially on a creature that you don't want attacking because your afraid to lose it like Brood Keeper. You'll want that engine in play so that it keeps putting out a token creature everytime an aura comes into play on it.

OTHERS

Epiphany Storm giving Brood Keeper a Dakra Mystic-like effect to draw.

Flamespeaker's Will just another cheap enchant-aura to trigger Brood Keeper and be recasted after being bounced to hand.

Messenger's Speed

Evanescent Intellect

Aqueous Form

Invisibility also combos with Siege Dragon who destroys all Walls.

Inferno Fist

Fearsome Temper It'll make your Brood Keeper a 4/5 and give it an ability to be unblocked. You can spend the mana to do that and still bounce it back to hand.

Encrust

Ordeal of Purphoros and Ordeal of Thassa. Interesting thing about these is you can leave them on for a few turns, before the enchanted creature reaches 3 counters you can bounce them back to hand to pump and buff up another creature and re-use them. And if you want their effect at any time re-cast them on to a creature with 3 counters already on it and attack. The check of whether the enchanted creature has three or more +1/+1 counters on it happens as part of the resolution of the attack triggered ability. You won’t sacrifice the Ordeal until the next time the creature attacks. When it does,.boom you got an Instant draw 2 or instant 3 dmg burn spell to creature or player.

Pin to the Earth

Singing Bell Strike

Creatures: The Dragons...

Aside from those we already went over how important they are as main cards to this deck strategy ( Brood Keeper, Generator Servant, Riptide Chimera

Stormbreath Dragon Purpose is serves: First of all it's the best Dragon card in Standard right now. You gotta include it but it really isn't the star of the show in this deck. Besides getting it out on T3 via Generator Servant it often is just another flying dragon to attack with in the mid-game.

Forgestoker Dragon Purpose it serves: Besides bouncing Hammerhand with Riptide Chimera this guy will function as a mana dump that you can use to clear a path for all your attacking creatures. For just 2 mana you can make target creature unable to block. If they have little toughness you can even ping them off.

Hoarding Dragon Purpose it serves: To tutor up a artifact for those times when you're not drawing Hall of Triumph or Dragon Throne of Tarkir to get the anthem effects going. You'll need to kill it off to get the artifact into your hand but it's only a 4/4 so attack with the purpose of blockers dealing lethal damage to it or block with the purpose of attackers dealing lethal damage to it, either way. If it becomes a problem just Stoke the Flames it.

Paragon of Fierce Defiance Purpose it servers: It itself is an anthem effect for pretty much all your creatures. It can give spot haste to anything for cheap.

Token Creatures

The major offenders in this deck are your dragon hatchling tokens. Don't forget that all your dragon tokens also have "{R}: This creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn." If you don't have Forgestoker Dragon out as a mana dump you can use these abilities and tap out your mana to get that extra bit of power. Trick your opponent into blocking and then buff them when they forget you have untapped mana is always a fun move.

Hordeling Outburst continues the token theme and allows you to go wider with too many creatures - more than they can handle. They all will receive the same anthem buffs as your dragon tokens because they are red all the same. Sometimes you don't have a board presence early in the game. You can cast one of these early to hold off the enemy and use the tokens as chump blockers to get you bye in the meantime. Besides all that it's just such a great card with many options on how to play it and what decks it fits into.

Maybe Ideas:

Sometimes there are cards that you overlook the first time around. These are where suggestions come in handy so let them fly!

Barrage of Boulders is a great card for this deck. When you look at it through the lense of it's Ferocious ability it becomes a massive swing with all your tokens being unblockable. It's a finisher is what it is. You'll just need one creature with power 4 or greater. Plenty of Dragons meet this stipulation alone but also with aura's that buff your 3 power creatures +1/+1 when enchanted or with Anthem effects it's not going to be hard to have 4 power on something. This is also why i considered Crater's Claws & Icy Blast.

Eidolon of the Great Revel works wonders in a deck where you need time to set up and your not casting many low CMC spells. You won't control the early game with this deck so to keep the opponent in check you might need this little card that can potentially deal a lot of damage towards their 20 life. It's also great late game to stop the pesky low cost cards from happening too often without consequence.

Add Green and make this (Temur). If you add Green you can do a lot more Mana Ramping with the ever popular Sylvan Caryatid which can tap for any of the three colors you run. Mana Fix and Mana Ramp in one package is why it's so great. It would help get those high costing dragons out, and also give you another early creature since in testing that's what this deck struggles with. Getting a board presence early. You could even run another planeswalker. Nissa, Worldwaker. I love the untap 4 forests each turn for a 8 mana base just by running her. Plus you can give temporary anthem effects to all of the tokens +X/+X'ing them with Xenagos, God of Revels and other green buff spells.

Of all the clans, the Temur have the most respect for the natural order of Tarkir. They have chosen the claw of the Dragon (or Penguin - depending on who you ask) as their clan symbol. The Khan of the Temur even holds the title "Dragonclaw." I think making this Dragon Deck a Temur color wedge deck is more than suiting.

Go BLACK? Why?

Crux of Fate is an upcoming card in Fate Reforged that will be powerful in and against this deck. For 5 mana, 3BB, you can cast this and choose one. - Destroy all Dragon creatures. OR - Destroy all non-Dragon creatures. If we decide to include black to make this a Rakdos deck then it would be a good card to run.

Clever Impersonator is a interesting inclusion. It can enter as a copy of whatever you want. A creature, a enchantment, artifact, or even a planeswalker. You can copy a Crucible for +6/+6 dragons. You can copy a big dragon creature and just have two big dragon creatures. You can even copy an opponent's Sarkhan and both may stay on the battlefield as long as they're controlled by different players.

Also let's not forget about Morph. The clans have co-opted ancient "draconic" magic to disguise their strength and create ambushes for each other. This is represented by Morph cards. I expect to see the new sets include morph permanents, not only creatures either. (see the card Trail of Mystery for why.) The great thing about Morph is you can pay 3 of any color then morph anytime making them be what they're suppose to be, and often triggering an effect in the process.

Stoke the Flames is also another card that loves tokens synergy. Tap any 4 creatures and Convoke it out casting it for free. You'll almost never have to pay anything for it. The artwork on both versions is amazing too and fits in with Dragon theme. (Stoke the Flames)

Stoke The Flames | Art by Mathias Kollros

“My armor is like tenfold shields.

My teeth like swords.

My claws, spears.

The shock of my tail, a thunderbolt.

My wings, a hurricane.

And my breath, death. “

-- Smaug, the Magnificent

More Random Art I didn't use;

Featured Card alternative for art Tyrant's Familiar

There have been a lot of variants on "fire-breathing dragons" in Magic, and there are plenty of ways yet to explore this classic mainstay of fantasy in Standard. I hope more is to come. Please rate and comment if you liked this deck and come back and share any that you make.

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Revision 1 See all

(6 months ago)

+2	Barrage of Boulders	maybe
+3	Brood Keeper	main
+3	Crucible of Fire	main
+1	Dragon Breath	maybe
+2	Dragon Mantle	main
+2	Dragon Throne of Tarkir	maybe
+1	Forgestoker Dragon	maybe
+4	Generator Servant	maybe
+2	Hall of Triumph	maybe
+4	Hammerhand	maybe
+1	Hoarding Dragon	main
+2	Hordeling Outburst	main
+8	Island	maybe
+10	Mountain	maybe
+1	Nesting Dragon	main
+2	Obelisk of Urd	main
+2	Paragon of Fierce Defiance	maybe
+4	Riptide Chimera	maybe
+2	Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker	maybe
+2	Shivan Reef	maybe

and 22 other change(s)

Date added	9 years
Last updated	6 months
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	0 - 5 Mythic Rares 1 - 12 Rares 0 - 12 Uncommons 0 - 13 Commons
Cards	1
Avg. CMC	5.00
Tokens	Dragon 2/2 R, Dragon Egg 0/2 R, Emblem Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, Goblin 1/1 R
Folders	Outdated Standard Decks - Finished, Yus
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